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-----LIGHTBRINGER-----
ARACHNE LESTRANGE was an apple in her father's eyes and her mother's delight. She always filled the house with her presence. A joyous soul she was back in her childhood. She could be caught singing happily or dancing around the pillars of the manor, delighting Rodolphus and playfully chasing Rabastan, who was only a few years her senior, through the dark rooms. She giggled at his sight back then. He was her favourite brother, affectionately dubbed Rabbie, she cheerfully called him, while she was his Archie. And when he left for Hogwarts, two years prior to her, she wept for days, unaccustomed to their separation.
Two years later, she joined him and was sorted into the same house as all of her family - the esteemed house of Salazar Slytherin. She came to Hogwarts hoping to spend most of her time with her beloved brother. However, her expectations were dashed as Rabastan's behaviour shifted as he spent more and more time with his new, sullen friends, becoming more dependent on them. And although they were still close, she was concerned about him. She could not bear a thought of another dark wizard in their family. Rodolphus turned into one, influenced by his wife, Bellatrix. Not that Arachne despised Bella, but she knew from the very beginning that the Black girl could not bring anything good into their household.
On her fifteenth birthday, Arachne received a silver dagger, her initials etched into the blade. It soon served a purpose beyond mere ornamentation, its edge sharp enough to cut with ease. Lestrange would often run the blade across her skin-a few cuts, a few drops of blood. No one seemed to care.
From the age of sixteen, she was forced by her mother to attend balls for the wizarding world's most esteemed pure blood families. Acantha had declared it a high time for her to seek a husband. Arachne was only sixteen, but her mother already envisioned her as a broodmare. On her first ball, the only familiar faces were those of the Black's. The eldest son and heir, Sirius, his twin sister, Luna, and their little brother, Regulus, gathered before a marble statue of Aphrodite. Arachne soon enough found a friend in Orion and Walburga's only daughter. On the other hand, she ignored Sirius at the very beginning, remembering his scatterbrained and hasty behaviour at Hogwarts. Yet, after a few drinks, Lestrange changed her mind about the oldest Black. Arachne, Sirius and Luna quickly became inseparable at the balls. When they returned to Hogwarts for their fifth year, rumours spread around the school that Sirius courted Ara. They both immediately denied the rumours, confessing that they were only friends. At least then.
Nonetheless, that did not stop the two ambitious mothers from planning their betrothal. But before it was to happen, Sirius and Luna ran away and got disowned by Walburga, shattering the betrothal. Both Reinhard and Acantha strictly forbade their only daughter to have any contact with the Black twins. It didn't stop her from hanging out with them in Hogwarts. Only after the escape did Sirius show her his true self. She could not deny having feelings for him, although he didn't treat her seriously. Back then he thought of it as a jest. But with the passing years things changed, and the two got into a secret, precarious relationship, that neither James nor Luna knew about.
